“He’s loyal.”
“He’s a menace.”
“Those qualities overlap.”
Ivy suddenly appears between us, holding a dog toy.
“Tired?” I ask.
She nods before rubbing one eye. Her earlier excitement finally faded into exhaustion sometime within the last hour.
Irina steps out from the hallway carrying Ivy’s sweater. “I think somebody is reaching bedtime collapse.”
“I’m not collapsing,” Ivy argues weakly while already leaning against my leg.
“I see,” Irina says knowingly.
Alexei’s face softens at the sight of Ivy fighting sleep. “I should get her home,” he says.
Disappointment slips through me before I can stop it. Which, honestly, is a little pathetic, considering they don’t actually belong to me. Not Alexei. Not Ivy. Not this strange, almost-family feeling that keeps wrapping itself tighter around me anyway.
Before I can answer, Luka steps through the front entrance again after taking a phone call outside. His expression changes the second his eyes meet Alexei's.
Every instinct in me snaps awake.
Alexei notices too. “What is it?” he asks.
“Problem with one of the trucks near the port,” Luka says smoothly. “I need five minutes.”
Alexei sighs before nodding once. “I’ll be outside,” he says to me.
The two men step toward the front doors together, speaking in Russian while Viktor moves closer to the entrance behind them.
I watch them disappear beneath the dim parking lot lights. The unease inside me grows anyway.
“You alright?” Irina asks beside me.
I force a smile. “Yeah. Just tired.” That answer feels like a lie the second it leaves my mouth.
Outside, one of the remaining SUVs pulls slowly around the side of the building toward the back lot. Inside the shelter, the lights buzz overhead while Ivy curls sleepily against my side. And somewhere deep in the back kennels, a dog starts barking. Then another joins in. Within seconds, nearly the entire rear section erupts into noise loud enough to vibrate through the walls.
Irina turns toward the hallway at the same moment I do, concern flashing in her eyes.
“What’s happening?” she asks.
A loud crash echoes somewhere near the rear service entrance. Metal slams against concrete.
The entire shelter stills for one strange, suspended moment afterward.
Outside the front windows, Luka’s head snaps toward the side parking lot.
Alexei moves immediately. One second, he’s standing near the front entrance beside Luka. Next, he’s striding quickly toward the back hallway.
“Viktor,” he says coldly.
Viktor’s hand instinctively moves beneath his jacket, and the sight sends a cold rush straight through me. Not nerves. Not anxiety. Real fear.
“Alexei…” I call out.
